First module of new space station rolls out

The first module of the International Space Station

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia's Khrunichev Space Center on Tuesday sent the first module of a future International Space Station by rail from Moscow to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Sergei Ziltsov, a spokesman for the Khrunichev rocket-manufacturing plant, said a special four-wagon train would carry the module, known as the FGB, and additional equipment on the 1,900-km (1,200-mile) six-day journey to Baikonur.

"The train's wagons are made for transportation of space rockets," Ziltsov said, adding that the train will be heavily guarded.

The U.S.-funded and Russian-built FGB module is scheduled to be launched from Baikonur on June 30. It will mark the start of assembly for the most ambitious space program in history, bringing together the United States, the European Space Agency, Russia, Canada, Italy and Japan.

The construction of the 20-ton FGB, under a contract between Khrunichev and Boeing Co. of the United States, started in 1994 and was basically ready in 1996. It was initially scheduled for a November 1997 launch.

But Russian delays on the next segment of the space station, the service module in which cosmonauts will live, forced planners to push back all launch dates. Khrunichev said they used the additional time to further improve the nearly complete FGB module and make about 300 changes.

The space station will replace the world's only orbital laboratory, Russia's aging Mir space station, which has been in service since 1986.

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